Excavator tooth assemblies mounted to the digging edge of excavator buckets and the like generally comprise a replaceable digging tooth, an adaptor body and an adaptor nose which is secured by welding or the like to the digging edge of a bucket or the like. The tooth generally has a socket-like recess at its rear end to receivably locate a front spigot portion of the adaptor nose and a removable locking pin is generally employed to releasably secure the tooth on the adaptor.
In use, excavator teeth are subjected to extensive load forces along a longitudinal axis of a tooth as well as in vertical and transverse directions. A snug fit is required between the digging point and the front portion of the adaptor and also between the adaptor socket and the nose spigot portion and their respective mounting pins to avoid premature wear between the components. As the various components wear, the locking pins can loosen thereby increasing the risk of loss of a digging point or an entire adaptor/tooth combination. This necessitates considerable downtime to replace the lost wear members and where items such as locking pins are not recovered, these can cause damage and/or further downtime in downstream operations such as ore crushing and the like.
The greatest loads experienced by excavator tooth assemblies are vertical loads which tend to generate large moment forces capable of rotating a tooth off the front of an adaptor and/or rotating the adaptor off the adaptor nose. In addition, twisting or “yaw” loads are frequently imposed on such tooth assemblies.
Despite many prior art attempts to improve the mounting of a wear member to a nose of an excavator, most of these proposals suffer from one or more deficiencies. As described hereinafter, many of the prior art references relate to direct mounting of a tooth onto a nose without an intermediate adaptor but in those assemblies, the mounting systems for securing teeth directly onto excavator noses is considered analogous to the mounting of a tooth onto an adaptor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,058 describes an excavator tooth having a rearwardly divergent tapering socket to receive a nose having a complementary-shaped front spigot portion. Resistance to rotational moment forces is borne by a resilient steel cotter pin extending through aligned vertical apertures in the socket and spigot portions.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,774,324, 4,338,736, 4,481,728, 4,903,420, 5,469,648, 7,100,315 and 6,735,890 all describe nose and tooth combinations wherein the nose has a generally convergently tapering spigot portion with a forward tip having a box-like configuration with at least the upper and lower surfaces thereof having faces parallel to each other and to a longitudinal axis of the nose portion. With the exception of U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,736, which describes a transverse locking pin, each of the tooth mounting arrangements is heavily reliant on a large vertical locking pin to resist rotational moment forces tending to rotate the teeth off respective noses.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,231,173 describes a tapered adaptor nose having a box-like free end, which engages in a mating box-like socket cavity to resist rotational moments. Opposed pairs of rearwardly extending tongues engage in corresponding recesses in the outer surfaces of the adaptor nose to resist rotational movements. Because the tongues themselves are unsupported, they possess a limited capacity to resist rotational moment forces.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,824 describes a structure similar to that of U.S. Pat. No. 4,231,173 except that the side tongues are of more robust dimensions and the upper and lower tongues are formed as box-like members with apertures to receive a vertical mounting pin passing through aligned apertures in the tooth and adaptor nose.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,404,760 provides flat rail surfaces on the adaptor nose to engage with mating grooves in the socket aperture of a corresponding tooth wherein the mating rail and groove surfaces are generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the tooth.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,138 describes a generally tapered nose having a box-like front end with upper and lower transverse surfaces generally parallel to a longitudinal axis of a tooth which located directly thereon. The parallel upper and lower transverse surfaces are contiguous with upper and lower rail surfaces on each side of the nose and parallel to the longitudinal axis of the tooth. A pair of rearwardly extending side tongues locate in recesses formed in the outer side faces of the nose, ostensibly to resist rotational moment forces in the tooth. Because the side tongues are recessed to accommodate the side rail portions, the robustness of the side tongues is somewhat compromised.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,233,761 describes a fairly stubby tapered nose having a box-like front portion with upper and lower surfaces generally parallel to a longitudinal axis of an excavator tooth, an intermediate rearwardly diverging tapered portion and a rear portion having upper and lower surfaces extending generally parallel to a longitudinal axis of the tooth. Formed on the upper and lower surfaces of the front, intermediate and rear portions of the nose are spaced parallel reinforcing ribs which are located in mating grooves in the excavator tooth. A large vertical locking pin extends through aligned apertures in the tooth and nose between the reinforcing ribs. This structure is heavily reliant on the locking pin to resist rotational moment forces however it is considered that this configuration may be prone to failure in the rear portion of the adaptor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,043 describes a nose/adaptor combination wherein the adaptor socket tapers convergently towards a box-like front portion having upper and lower bearing surfaces generally parallel to a longitudinal axis of the tooth, a front transverse upright bearing surface and rearwardly divergent bearing surfaces formed at obtuse angles between the converging upper and lower walls and the side walls of the socket, ostensibly to avoid areas of stress concentration.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,018,896 describes a pin/retainer system for locking an excavation tooth onto an adaptor wherein the retainer is inserted in the adaptor and a wedge-shaped pin is driven into aligned apertures in the tooth and adaptor to resiliently engage with the retainer.
United States Publication No US 2002/0000053A1 describes a mechanism for releasably retaining an adaptor into the nose of a bucket lip or the like wherein a tapered threaded socket is non-rotatably located on the inside of an aperture in the side wall of the adaptor. A threaded retaining pin extends through the threaded socket and locates in an aligned aperture in the bucket nose.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,495 describes a tooth assembly with a two-piece telescopically engageable adaptor secured to a nose with a tapered wedge pin assembly. A similar mounting system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,501 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,052,927. Other retention systems for digging points on adaptors or adaptors on noses are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,119,378, 6,467,204, and 6,467,203.
Other devices for removably securing replaceable wear elements on earth working equipment such as a retaining pin, a bolt, a pin lock and locking blocks engageable in a top aperture in a wear member are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,839,805, 3,982,339, 4,587,751, 5,088,214 and 5,653,048 respectively.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,550 describes a lock assembly for releasably securing an adaptor to a nose of an excavator support structure. The lock assembly comprises a body and a base coupled together and adapted for insertion, while coupled together, in a hole in the nose of the support structure. The length of the lock assembly is extended to secure the adaptor and is retracted to release the adaptor. While adequate for securing an adaptor to a nose of an excavator support structure, the lock described in this patent is relatively complex in design and operation leading to high costs and labour intensive extraction procedures in the field.
Canadian Patent Application No 2,161,505 describes a system for removably retaining an excavation point on an adaptor with at least one flanged sleeve having a screw-threaded aperture therein, the flanged sleeve being non-rotatably locatable in a transverse bore in the adaptor before fitment of the point onto the adaptor. A screw-threaded pin is inserted into the sleeve via an aperture in the point whereby portion of the head of the pin retains the point on the adaptor.
Australian Patent Application No 2003264586 describes a locking pin assembly comprising a body member having a non-circular cross-sectional shape locatable in a bore of complementary shape extending laterally between opposite sides of an excavator lip mounting nose. After locating the body member in the nose aperture, an adaptor can be engaged over the nose with apertures in opposite side walls aligned with the body member. Threaded bolts engage in threaded apertures in opposite ends of the body member, the bolts each having a tapered shank portion with an enlarged boss at a free end thereof, the boss being locatable in a respective aperture in a side wall of said adaptor to prevent the adaptor from disengaging with the nose.
While generally satisfactory for their intended purpose, the abovementioned prior art all suffer from one or more shortcomings or disadvantages in terms of inadequate resistance to rotation of a tooth off a nose or an adaptor under the influence of vertical loads applying a rotational moment to the tooth, a predisposition to premature wear, difficulties in retention of the teeth on noses or adaptors, inadequate locking systems and unduly complicated configurations giving rise to increased fabrication costs. Furthermore, the prior art all generally rely on lock assemblies that require threaded components. Thread components in lock assemblies are generally disadvantageous as dirt and fines can infiltrate the threaded assembly thereby causing cementation and resulting in difficulties in removal.